In what historic trial would you as Time Traveler (TT) choose to speak for the defense? And do you think you could influence the outcome?

Would you, coming from 2010 and knowing what you know, be a witness for the defense of the likes of Galileo Galilei, Joan of Arc, Jesus Christ, Socrates? Whom would you defend? What would you say?

Do you think your testimony at the trial would be persuasive enough to save the defendant of your choice?

Please note, this is not a question about the butterfly effect (going back and changing the course of history with a single act). This is about which historical figure you would choose to argue for if you could travel in time, knowing that he or she was in fact condemned at that trial.

6 Answers

The Nürnberg Trials. Not to defend the actions of the Nazis, but to show that the allies themselves are guilty of war crimes as well and to expose their hypocrisy by not holding themselves to the same standards.

When I read this question the first trials that came to mind were 20th century trials such as the Scopes Trial, Roe vs. Wade, and Brown vs. the Board of Education. Reading the text made me take a longer view. I would like to be present at the trial of Bahá‘u’lláh.

I would love to defend Galileo Galilei. The Church of course would not budge from its geocentric view of the Universe. I would argue that their model of the Universe was not critical to peoples faith and that greater respect for the Church would result from their tolerance of new ideas that do not undermine faith than would be gained by persecution of those how seek to understand the nature of things.

Ignorance and fear of free thinkers encumbered organized religion then.
Good thing that does not happen any more!

Of course, Galileo Galilei would still be convicted and I, as a Jew, would have been tortured to death!

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. Out of those who actually got a trial be it a kangaroo court would be Adolf Eichmann. Though to many he may be seen as evil because of his involvement in the gas chambers, which since he was handed the duty he wanted to have a more quicker humane way than a firing squad.

Of those who never got a trial would be Emmett Till and Mary Turner, who only crime was whistling at a white girl or demanding justice for her lynched husband.